The Fundraiser’s Blog

Betsy Steward 4/18/23 Betsy Steward 4/18/23

Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Gift Acceptance Policy

by Betsy Steward

Does your nonprofit have a written Gift Acceptance Policy (GAP)? If not, you’re certainly not alone… but you need one. Why do fundraising and nonprofit management professionals like me say that?

Shouldn’t nonprofits just accept any and all gifts that are offered?

No.

Although we can assume gifts are offered with the best of intentions, good intentions don’t ensure that gifts are helpful or appropriate for the recipient nonprofit. And sometimes intentions are not so good! Unfortunately, history shows that gifts have been given with an ulterior purpose or provided through ill-gotten gains. Perhaps you remember the story of Alberto Vilar, one of the most generous donors to the Metropolitan Opera in the early 2000s. Or maybe you’re aware of more recent issues involved with the Sackler family’s philanthropy.

“But,” you say, “we don’t have anyone giving at that level or with such a global profile — nothing like that could possibly happen to us.” Maybe you’re right — and I hope you are — but that doesn’t mean that your nonprofit should allow itself to be vulnerable to problematic gifts.

Your nonprofit’s Board of Directors needs to decide what your nonprofit will accept, and what it won’t, so that your organization is prepared when an awkward or undesirable gift arrives. Why? Because…

Some gifts may run counter to your nonprofit’s values. Is it wise for a nonprofit whose mission is focused on dealing with cancer to accept money from a tobacco company? Should a conservation organization count on support from the petroleum industry?

These issues can arise at any giving level. I had a client raising money for a school by selling engraved bricks for the sidewalk. It was in 2020, when — on top of the pandemic — our country was going through intense social upheaval. A donor wanted to engrave a brick with a political statement that was in direct opposition to the diversity goals of the school.

Fortunately, my client had a GAP in place, so a major argument among school supporters with differing opinions that could have escalated into the wider community was averted.

Some gifts may lead to legal obligations and additional expenses. Gifts of cars, trucks, or boats can have costly issues around insurance, licensing, storage, and more. Gifts of art works require professional appraisals as well as professional storage until you figure out how best to convert them to cash. Gifts of cryptocurrency require expertise that might not be readily available on your board or staff, incurring expenses that may surpass the amount of the gift.

And while you and your development staff are distracted from more important donor cultivation work, trying to figure out what to do with gifts like these, where do you park that boat and where do you put that 10-foot sculpture that may be worth far less than the donor imagines?

Your nonprofit may not be equipped to use or dispose of certain types of gifts. It’s not just the gift of cryptocurrency that can cost your nonprofit more money than it brings in, considering staff time and the ultimate value of the gift. Some gifts cause a lot of unintended problems. Unfortunately, you can’t just throw out or recycle a gift that doesn’t help your nonprofit without disrespecting the donor. For example:
- outdated computers and cell phones
- Grandma’s china
- the 1938 Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 (out of 26) volumes
- a grand piano
- a race horse

What’s the problem, why can’t we just say no? Why is an official policy important?

Declining a gift is tricky because you can so easily and unintentionally offend the donor. Imagine how the donor would feel hearing “no” without some reason they can understand. Maybe it’s the cherished piano she grew up playing. Maybe he envisions giving your nonprofit his recently deceased grandmother’s china as a beautiful tribute. Maybe they don’t realize that a computer from 2010 isn’t really helpful in 2023, but they really want to help you achieve your goals.

Having a gift declined is, at the very least, disappointing, and, at worst, insulting.

A donor who hears “no” without a supporting reason for what she sees as her generous and helpful gift probably won’t be very impressed with your nonprofit — and is therefore less likely to donate to your organization again — and more likely to share her negative experience and feelings with her friends and family.

A policy allows you to maintain a good relationship with each donor, even when you have to decline their gift.

Having a written Gift Acceptance Policy allows your nonprofit’s fundraising staff, ED, or board member to say to any donor, “Oh, thank you so much, but I’m sorry — our board’s gift acceptance policy won’t allow us to accept that. I wish we could, but my hands are tied.”

You don’t show the donor the policy: you simply explain it. You would be surprised how few donors will argue with an official policy. And don’t be tempted to say you have one if you don’t — besides being unethical, pretending will most certainly lead to problems down the line, risking the trust you’ve built among your donors, both current and potential.

Setting official policy is the Board’s job.

It’s the board’s job to decide what gifts a nonprofit accepts or declines. It’s been said that “a policy that isn’t written down does not exist.” If policy is discussed but not documented, board members will remember it differently, and new board members and staff will have no way of knowing about it.

A critical element of an effective Gift Acceptance Policy is to require board approval on all nonfinancial gifts, and on financial gifts of a designated size. At the very least, a simple policy obliging the Board to sign-off can elude serious problems.

Typically, a Gift Acceptance Policy is drafted by the Development Committee of the Board, and then presented to the Board for full board approval. The staff is not responsible for writing a GAP, but must alert the Board Chair to the need for one. And, staff can help the board get started in their process by providing sample GAPs available via Google.

You may never have to use it… but when you need it, you’ll be so glad and grateful to have it.

A Gift Acceptance Policy is considered a "best practice in fundraising" even though you may never have to use it. Maybe no one will donate swampland in Florida, or a real human skeleton, or a live jaguar, or any one of the many surprising examples of unexpected gifts in the annals of fundraising history — but if someone does, your board and staff will be ready to handle it professionally because of your Gift Acceptance Policy — and you’ll all be really glad to have it in place.

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling to the bottom of this page and schedule a free 45-minute session!

Betsy Steward is an independent fundraising consultant. She advises clients on major donor solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com and you can join her blog mailing list by scrolling to the bottom of the page at https://www.betsystewardconsulting.com/

Betsy Steward 4/4/23 Betsy Steward 4/4/23

Nonprofit Fundraisers and Board Members! Are Silent Auctions Good?

by Betsy Steward

It’s nonprofit event season again! Is your annual celebration coming up? Are you including a Silent Auction at your gala? As a fundraising consultant, I’m enthusiastic about Live Auctions, but I am dismayed when I see my clients spending so much of their time and energy on Silent Auctions instead of donor cultivation.

In fact, I usually try to convince my clients to avoid a Silent Auction altogether, or at least limit it. The purpose of today’s blog is to help your Board, ED, and fundraising staff understand why leaving the silent auction out of your plans might be smart — or, if complete removal is just not an option, to consider some ideas for streamlining it, so that it doesn’t get in the way of your event’s bigger goal and purpose.

What IS your event’s “bigger goal and purpose”?

Believe it or not, the primary purpose of a fundraising event is not raising money. No matter how big a role your event earnings may play in your annual budget, raising money is a secondary objective of your event.

The primary purpose of an event is to build relationships among stakeholders (donors, potential donors, board, and staff). We know in fundraising that people give to people they know and trust. An event provides an opportunity for stakeholders to discover their shared values and common interests — which leads to working together to address a problem. An event is a golden opportunity to educate less engaged or potential donors about the urgent need for your work, and to generate excitement about the possibilities for change.

“But,” you say, “my donors already know what we do!” Really? How about their spouses? Often, the spouses of the most engaged donors aren’t fully aware of the difference their support makes, or the need for it. And hopefully, there are “newbies” among your guests. An event is a chance to enlighten everyone about why your nonprofit exists and the transformations that generous donations can make — but not if your guests are focused on the Silent Auction.

Silent auctions get in the way of invaluable relationship building.

Unless it’s full of items that can facilitate relevant discussion related to the nonprofit’s mission (like paintings at an art center), a Silent Auction can disrupt the flow of conversations, preventing relationships from blossoming. It can distract donors, staff, and guests, defeating the bigger purpose of getting everyone together.

How many of the following scenarios have happened to you at a nonprofit event?

You’re in the middle of a deep conversation with a donor about the vital work your nonprofit does when you are interrupted by another guest rushing by, saying, “Hey, if you want that trip to Madrid, you better bid again, someone else just bid!” Your conversation ends abruptly when the donor rushes off.

You’ve just been introduced to a well-known guest (a.k.a., potential donor) whose assistant has blocked your calls for months; she briskly says, “oh, nice to meet you, my husband wants me to see something in the auction,” and takes off.

As you talk with a couple, you realize their primary focus is on “finding a deal” at the auction, rather than hearing about how their donations have changed the lives of those your nonprofit serves, and glowing in the realization of just how much their empathy has helped others.

Your ED is getting to know a major philanthropist who was invited by your board chair; just as their conversation gets off the ground, a junior staffer who can’t find the Development Director pulls the ED away to address a silent auction situation.

Time spent schmoozing with donors and potential donors at a gala is critical to nonprofit fundraising. Once you’ve made a personal connection to a donor, it’s much more likely that they will take your call in the days right after the event. From there, you have a priceless opportunity to continue the conversation about your work and mission — which is what leads to more (and more generous) donations.

And after the event, will the donor who won the trip to Madrid be glowing because of all the good she’s done by supporting your work? Will she be calling family members to rave about your nonprofit’s accomplishments, encouraging them to get involved? Or will she be excited to share the news about her upcoming Madrid adventure?

If circumstances demand that you include a Silent Auction at your event, keep these ideas in mind:

Remember that your most important job is donor cultivation. In the months leading up to the event as well as on the night itself, don’t let Silent Auction tasks obstruct your focus from the opportunity to build connections with donors.
Limit the number of items included in the Silent Auction. The more items you have, the more power the Silent Auction has to lure you away from your real job and your donors away from engaging more.
Control the items offered by making sure your organization’s Gift Acceptance Policy includes language that will allow you to decline a gift to the auction. If something goes against your mission or won’t sell, it shouldn’t be included. A silent auction is not a garage sale! You need to be able to decline an auction donation. (If your organization doesn’t have a Gift Acceptance Policy, you need one! I’ll cover the reasons why in my next blog — scroll down here to sign up for my blogs.)
Set a deadline at least one week before the event for donations to the silent auction, and stand firm in respecting that date. Well-meaning board members who show up the afternoon of your event with three more items are sabotaging your fundraising efforts — sapping your energy for engaging with donors by giving you more tasks, even though (of course) that’s not their intention.
Run the auction online during the weeks leading up to and following the event, so that your board, staff, and guests are less distracted by it during the event.
Plant the seed in the minds of your staff and board about eliminating next year’s Silent Auction.

Don’t let a Silent Auction overshadow your fundraising efforts.

If it’s done right, an event can leave all who attend inspired and grateful for your organization. Relationships developed at an event have the potential to lead to more and bigger donations, but only if your board and staff leverage the cultivation possibilities your gala provides. That means talking with people, not shopping!

The Silent Auction has the power to distract from the mission, and to disrupt and defeat your efforts to get to know your donors and potential donors. And let’s face it: sometimes focusing on silent auction tasks is easier than talking with a major donor.

But ask yourself: how much money does the silent auction actually raise? Could you get the same amount by cultivating a generous donor, and then asking for that exact amount?

An event that doesn’t engage donors beforehand and doesn’t include follow-up afterwards is a waste of a nonprofit’s time and resources. When staff and board are fixated on the Silent Auction, potential donors are ignored. Freeing up your fundraising staff and your board members to focus on building relationships before, during, and after your event will, in the long run, pay many more dividends than most Silent Auctions can possibly produce.

Interested in reading more of Betsy’s blogs about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling to the bottom of this page!

Betsy Steward 11/29/22 Betsy Steward 11/29/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers: Quality Beats Speed in Writing to Donors

by Betsy Steward

As a nonprofit fundraising professional, I’ve observed how important writing is to my job. When I was a development director, I remember estimating that I spent more than half of my work time composing and editing emails, letters, newsletter articles, case materials and more. Today, as a fundraising consultant, a significant portion of my time is spent creating and editing drafts of all kinds for my clients, and of course, writing blogs like this one. I enjoy working with language and the art of writing, so it’s fine with me!

One thing I’ve noticed is the importance of “sleeping on” whatever I write. I refer to it as “baking time.” Something happens when we sleep. It’s not just our food that gets digested: information does, too. We unconsciously turn things around in our minds, comparing, contrasting, considering. Somehow, we dig deeper.

Giving my mind the time it needs to “bake” my business writing makes such a difference that I hardly ever send an email, mail a letter, or post a blog without sleeping on it.

Here’s an example: Recently, I was helping a client write a letter to a longtime major supporter containing a special and unusual “ask”. I don’t usually advise soliciting a donor via letter — an in-person meeting is the most effective way to solicit a gift — but this situation had special circumstances, and a letter was our only option.

My client wrote a good first draft. My suggestions were to 1) move all references to finances (including the solicitation) to the end of the letter; 2) acknowledge the impact the donor’s previous gifts had made much earlier in the letter; and 3) focus the bulk of the letter on the difference we could potentially make and how we would go about making it. After shortening the paragraphs and tightening up some of the language, the result seemed good to me, and my client liked my suggestions.

But the next morning when I woke up, the first thing I thought of was that letter. It immediately struck me that we had neglected to include a very compelling component, which was that another major donor (a good friend of the donor we were writing to) had already said “yes” to supporting this initiative, saying we could tell other potential donors about his gift. How could we have forgotten to include THAT persuasive piece of information?!

Because I usually advise my clients to “sit on it” before they send important letters or emails, the letter had not gone out yet, so we were able to add what we had forgotten.

The art of writing — and especially writing to donors — requires balancing many elements and ideas in a succinct yet inspiring way, so it’s not surprising when some of them fall to the back of our brains. By turning my attention away from that letter, an important part of the solicitation found its way back into the forefront of my thinking.

I hope you agree that it’s better to be smacking your forehead with the palm of your hand BEFORE you click Send or drop that letter in the mailbox than AFTER!

So, I’ll end with the same advice I give to my clients: don’t just write your email and hit Send, especially if the recipient is a donor or board member. If it’s urgent and you can’t wait long enough to actually sleep on it, take some time away from your email or letter to see what else occurs to you when your mind is focused on something else. You’ll end up with better, more authentic and complete communication, which will ultimately strengthen your nonprofit’s relationship to your donor.

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling to the bottom of this page and schedule a free 45-minute session!

Betsy Steward 11/15/22 Betsy Steward 11/15/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers: How Many Meetings Before You ASK?

by Betsy Steward

As a fundraising consultant, one of the most common questions I get from my nonprofit clients — both staff and board members — is about how soon you can ask a major donor for a significant gift. In my experience, there’s no formulaic answer. Every situation, like every donor, is unique.

“When” to ask requires careful consideration in each case. It’s best if every donor meeting includes an ask: for a connection, for advice, for continued conversation, for another meeting, and in some cases, for a gift. But don’t rush to solicit because your numbers would be better if that donor would just hurry up and GIVE! Timing is everything, in life and in fundraising.

Calculating the timing of your ask based on the number of meetings is not a good way to approach this challenge. Of course, to manage your time effectively, you must spend some time on analysis, including keeping track of just how many meetings you have with each donor. But if your attention is fully on numbers — the size of gifts, the number of gifts, the number of meetings — instead of the quality of your donor relationships, you can miss out on more, bigger, and future gifts.

Cultivation: 90% of a fundraiser’s time.

The bulk of our time as major gift fundraisers is best spent in donor cultivation: educating, explaining, and engaging. Fast-tracking your donors because you’re thinking transactionally will result in fewer and smaller gifts.

An illuminating cultivation success story in my experience happened when I was Director of Development at Westchester Children’s Association (WCA), a century-old child advocacy organization in the NYC metropolitan area. WCA had a donor I’ll call Arlene, whose first donation was made in 1996, eleven years before I was hired in 2007. That first donation was $50. The following year, she donated $300. In the eleven years before the organization decided to invest in a development professional, she gave varying annual gifts between $25 and $2,500. For a few of those years, she served as a member of WCA’s board, and, after completing her term and stepping down, she continued to serve on various committees.

When I was first hired, I noticed that WCA’s board members didn’t seem to interact very much before and after board meetings. Nobody hung around to ask how another board member’s kid was doing with college applications or how their spouse was liking the new job. A county-wide organization like ours meant that board members didn’t go to the same grocery store, their kids didn’t go to the same high school, and they didn’t attend the same house of worship, even though they may have been of the same faith.

Donors form concentric circles around your nonprofit.

I thought that growing the relationships between board members would benefit WCA, because I see the relationships of donors to the nonprofit as a series of concentric circles, beginning with those donors closest to the organization — the board — and extending out in widening circles to include all donors. Moving donors closer and closer to the inner circles starts with strengthening the relationships between individual board members.

With that in mind, I suggested to the Executive Director that we ask one of our board members to host an informal cocktail party for board members and their partners/spouses. Although the guest list was limited to current members, I made an exception in the case of Arlene. She had continued to serve on committees long after completing her board service, so I suggested we include her and her husband.

My suggestion was based on my instincts, not my fundraising numbers. I had no idea that Arlene had the capacity to give a major gift. My attention at that early point in my tenure was on organizing the entire fundraising effort for WCA — installing a new database, creating the case for support, and establishing the annual fundraising calendar as well as gift acceptance and acknowledgement policies — so I wasn’t spending much time on individual donor research. It just felt right to invite her.

Focus on the relationship and the numbers will follow.

Arlene was so thrilled to have been included that she reached out to me many times in the months following the party. We met for lunch, for coffee, and for phone chats, sometimes with the ED, and we got to know each other. We were both passionate about WCA’s mission, and we discovered a lot of other shared interests, too. In my first year at WCA, her donation grew to $3,000. The second year, she gave over $5,000.

At that point, the ED and I looked at each other and said, “What if we ASKED her for more???” So we asked her for $10,000, and she gave it.

The year after that, we asked her for $25,000, which she gave.

The following year, we launched a capital campaign. By this time, we had done enough research to know that Arlene had the capacity to give at a much higher level. We asked her to consider being a lead donor to our campaign with a $250,000 gift. She gave it.

Don’t offend your donor by asking too early.

I believe Arlene had had the resources to give $250,000 in 1996 if she had been properly cultivated and solicited. But for eleven years, no one from WCA talked much with Arlene. No one explored her personal reasons for being involved. Once she left the board, no one asked her for her opinions on our approaches to the problems WCA was addressing. And certainly, no one asked her to give more.

Knowing Arlene as I now do, I believe she would have been offended if she had been solicited without having been cultivated. People give to people they know and trust, and until the board member cocktail party, no one had gotten to know Arlene very well.

Build your donor’s trust, and then trust your donor.

The invaluable lesson I learned from that experience was the critical importance of spending time cultivating donors, and of focusing on the relationship rather than the money. I call it “transactional thinking” when I see my clients completely focused on the numbers. I advise them to trust that the money will follow if they genuinely explore their donors’ interests and then find connections between those interests and the nonprofit’s work.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you ignore the numbers… but putting them first in your thinking is putting the cart before the horse. As you build your donor’s trust in you and your organization, you can also build your own ability to trust that the donor will come through.

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling to the bottom of this page and schedule a free 45-minute session!

Betsy Steward 11/1/22 Betsy Steward 11/1/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers: When Declining a Gift is Best

by Betsy Steward

My last two blogs have been about the nuances of soliciting major gifts: how to fit your nonprofit’s story to the donor’s point of view, and how to deal with the fear of asking. Today, I’ll focus on what to do when a major gift is offered, but with conditions that don’t necessarily align with your organization’s plans.

Let’s say you’ve received a generous 5-, 6-, or 7-figure gift from a donor you’ve cultivated, and the gift includes specific instructions for its use. If those instructions line up with the programs your nonprofit offers or your board’s vision for the future, that’s great! Try not to break your arm patting yourself on the back.

But what if the instructions are outside of your current programmatic offerings, or beyond the scope of your mission or your board’s vision?

A former client of mine received a generous gift from a woman whose husband had recently died. He had passionately loved music, so she wanted to start a music program named for him. She chose my client, a children’s educational center, to put her plan into action. Sounds like success, right?

The problem was that the educational center, which offered many enrichments programs, did not have an active music program. The donor’s gift, while generous, was not enough to buy instruments and hire staff trained to teach music, both of which would be required to launch even a small music program.

My client could have accepted the gift and somehow tried to figure out something that would qualify as a music program. That’s a solution that would tempt many… because who wants to DECLINE a gift??? It’s hard enough to solicit a gift, much less figure out how to gracefully say “no” to one.

Saying “yes” would have been good for the annual fundraising goal… but it would have created significant problems for the nonprofit down the line.

Instead, my client talked with the donor, helping her see that such a gift would not fit into the center’s current plans. The goal of the conversation was to convince the donor to take the restrictions off the gift.

Unfortunately, the donor was very focused on setting up a music program named for her husband, so her answer was no, she would not remove the restrictions.

After much discussion with board members and the ED, the Director of Development thanked the donor but declined the gift, explaining that the center would not be able to fulfill the donor’s idea.

Why was declining the gift the best course of action in this case?

The only way to accept a gift with restrictions is to fulfill the restrictions. That would have meant developing a substandard music program — definitely not the tribute the woman had in mind for her husband — and/or ignoring the strategic plan by eliminating existing programs to pay for a new one.
Using the development team’s time to accommodate a donor’s wishes by creating a new program distracts fundraisers from their real work, resulting in less funding. Creating a new program is a job for the program staff, right? It’s beyond the skillset of a fundraiser. Worse than that, it prevents the fundraising team from spending time on their main job, which is cultivating and soliciting donors.
Accepting the gift would have wasted an important opportunity to expand the donor’s understanding of the nonprofit’s existing programs and impact. My client was able to have a straightforward conversation with the donor, explaining why the donor’s idea didn’t fit with current operations. A missed opportunity like that could result in more gifts with restrictions from the donor, with even more expectations that her ideas would be put into place, no matter how unrealistic or unsuitable.
It was the most honest response to the gift. The most important quality a fundraiser has is integrity. Giving the donor an honest, reasonable response — even if it’s not the one they want — builds trust that will certainly pay off going forward. Simply put, saying “yes, thanks” when your organization can’t do what you’re agreeing to is not honest.

Declining the gift does not mean ending the relationship.

The donor in this story had already chosen the center as a good recipient to memorialize her husband, so the hardest part of fundraising — engaging the donor to begin with — was already in place. Just because this gift didn’t work out doesn’t mean more gifts from this donor are not possible.

The fundraising team was able to grow the donor’s belief in the organization without disparaging her original idea, and she continued to donate, even though the large gift she had offered hasn’t yet come to pass. But it’s not over! She’s still an engaged donor, and with continued cultivation, I’m confident that she’ll offer another generous gift in the future. The fundraising team continues to brainstorm about this donor, remembering that:

“If you need something from somebody,
always give that person a way to hand it to you.”

— Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

Even if “no, thank you” feels awful, it still may be the right move.

I know how heartbreaking it is to decline a gift, because I know how hard it is to get the gift in the first place. But in the long run, it’s a huge mistake to promise something that can’t be delivered. Don’t be tempted! By saying “no, thank you”, you are safeguarding your organization’s future in three ways: 1) by not wasting time trying to force a square peg into a round hole; 2) by continuing to focus your efforts on donor cultivation instead of program creation; and 3) by earning the respect and trust of your donor.

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling here and schedule a free 45-minute session!

Betsy Steward 10/18/22 Betsy Steward 10/18/22

Nonprofit Major Gift Fundraising and the Fear of Asking

by Betsy Steward

It takes a lot of nerve to ask someone who is neither a relative nor a dear friend for money. And I don’t mean pocket change, I mean MONEY – the kind that has a lot of zeroes at the end.

But if you’re a major gift fundraiser, that’s your job. Does it intimidate you? How do you handle your fear?

Development professionals benefit by putting some thought into the understandable fear of asking so that it doesn’t rear its ugly head right at the worst possible moment — like at the beginning of the solicitation conversation — when anxiety can throw you off your game as you greet the donor and set the tone of the meeting.

I have no magic formula to erase your worries. I’m not a therapist, and I know of no herb or pill that can alleviate fear without robbing you of the energy and focus you need to ask.

But I have a lot of experience dealing with performance anxiety, earned through years of major gift soliciting, public speaking, and, in my first career, opera singing. And let’s be honest, soliciting major gifts is a performance!

Here are some thoughts and ideas that have helped me calm myself before performances of all kinds. I hope they might help you, too.

Articulate the source of your fear.

Fear can make your mind go blank, hiding all your well-thought-out plans. But exactly what is it that’s making you nervous? If you can identify what’s going on, you might be able to defuse the fear and let it go.

If you’re not sure exactly what’s scaring you, other than vague intimidation by the task at hand, consider this: It’s been said that the root of fear is one of these three things: lack of information, lack of support, or lack of choice. Checking in on those three things always helped me bring my thoughts back in line and calm me down.

Lack of information: have you prepared well for your solicitation meeting? Do you have the information you need to speak enthusiastically about your mission, with specific information about your current plans and needs? Have you researched the donor and reviewed your notes so that you remember all you need to know about him/her?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then remind yourself you that you have the information you need to make the ask. If not, then take the time you need to prepare.
Lack of support: is everyone on your team aware that you’re going to “make an ask?” They should be! Fundraising is a team sport — even if you’re the only one meeting with the donor, you’re not asking “on your own.” Talk candidly with a colleague or your ED about your nervousness. Everyone is familiar with “test anxiety” in some form, and your team certainly knows that it takes courage to solicit a gift. They can help just by listening, and it can help you to talk about it.

Share your feelings honestly with your team without worrying that you’re revealing a vulnerability on your part. Feeling apprehensive about such a big job is no negative reflection on your ability as a fundraiser. It’s called a TEAM for a reason.
Lack of choice: You DO have choice, in terms of when, where, how you ask, and how much you ask for. If you think the solicitation amount that the team has agreed upon is too much, or that this is not the right time to ask, then you need to listen to that instinct and share it with your team. And if the “ask” language you’ve prepared doesn’t feel natural when you say it, then rephrase it so you can ask naturally and with confidence.

Giving yourself permission to adjust what you planned can be very freeing, and asking in language that feels personally genuine has proven to be much more successful in getting to “yes.” Plus, it will relax you.

Be honest with yourself, even if you pretend to others that you’re not scared.

When you ignore the butterflies in your stomach or your sweaty palms, you give fear power. My experience as an opera singer taught me a technique that might be useful for you. Instead of pretending I wasn’t scared, toughing it out by ignoring any symptoms of fear, I would imagine fear as a person, and I would invite her to join me on stage. My attitude towards this person was, “Ok, if you insist on being here, c’mon, we’re in this together!” As I walked on stage, I would imagine her joining me as my shadow… and guess what, she disappeared by the time I hit my mark on the stage! By acknowledging the presence of fear, I robbed it of its power.

Focus on the ask, not the response or your total fundraising goal.

Sometimes fear of asking is related to worries about bringing in enough money to reach the goal. Do you have a subliminal thought-line running through the back of your mind? “What if we don’t make our goal, OH NO!” Shine a light on that thought process so you can let go of it! It doesn’t belong in a solicitation meeting.

And sometimes fear of asking is related to what you are afraid the donor might say.

First, don’t jump to a conclusion! Let them answer before you decide what they’re going to say. Maybe they’ll surprise you.
Second, worrying about the reply is understandable, but your job is to ask, and only to ask.

The donor’s response is not your responsibility, and it definitely falls into the “things beyond your control” category. So let that go, too.

Remember that you are asking on behalf of people who cannot ask for themselves, and then keep your mind on the ask. Thinking about anything other than the ask is a distraction that robs you of the focus you need in a solicitation conversation.

Set yourself up for success.

The work you’re doing is too important to let fear get in the way. Don’t forget to include some time to deal with your fears before you meet with the donor, so that you can reduce or even eliminate them. You’ll have a better experience, you’ll develop a stronger relationship with the donor… and I bet you’ll bring in more funds!

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog by scrolling to the bottom of this page and schedule a free 45-minute session!

Betsy Steward 10/4/22 Betsy Steward 10/4/22

Sharing Your Nonprofit’s Story from Your Major Donor’s Point of View

by Betsy Steward

Fundraising calls on so much creativity! The poet William Plomer wrote that creativity is “the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” I agree — and it’s a talent that is essential to successful fundraising.

As fundraising professionals, when we talk with major donors, the key to building relationships is listening. By paying close attention when a donor talks, we can figure out which aspect of our nonprofit’s work resonates most with him or her. Then we need to tailor the way we tell the story of our work in a way that shines a light on that aspect, arousing the donor’s interest and compassion, and showing how the work we do fits into their philanthropic goals.

Sometimes it’s obvious — like the cancer survivor who wants to support cancer research — it’s not so hard to connect THOSE dots! But sometimes the connection may be hidden. That’s where creativity is so important. It’s the job of the fundraiser to connect the seemingly unconnected, and/or to highlight the aspects of our work that resonate most strongly with the donor.

Please don’t misunderstand! Of course I’m not recommending that you misrepresent in any way what your nonprofit does. But how you tell the story matters. Sharing your work from the donor’s point of view is critical to fundraising success.

Three Generous Donors, and How We Tailored Our Story

I’m reminded of three generous donors I worked with during my ten years as Director of Development at the Westchester Children’s Association (WCA). WCA advocates on behalf of children from infancy through age 25. Started in 1914, the organization addresses a wide variety of issues that can affect young people at every stage of their development.

One of our major donors, I’ll call her Mrs. X, in her nineties, was passionate about early childhood education, an issue WCA regularly addresses.

Another major donor, whom I’ll call Mrs. Y, was in her mid-seventies. In her youth, she had had a sister who committed suicide at 16. Consequently, Mrs. Y worried about the adolescent population. Her support was inspired by WCA’s long history of successfully working on behalf of teenagers.

Whenever we met with Mrs. X, my ED and I focused our conversation exclusively on early childhood education. And whenever we met with Mrs. Y, we talked about the impact we were having for teens. Both donors were aware that we worked on other challenges, but they weren’t interested in hearing about those efforts. So, when we talked with each of them, we limited our conversation to their favorite topic.

And then there was Mrs. Z, another of our elderly major donors, who cared deeply about the ex-convict population. She was very concerned about how a formerly incarcerated person rebuilds their life, and the bulk of her philanthropy went to a nonprofit focused on that issue.

Mrs. Z supported WCA largely because of her longtime dear friend, who was very involved with WCA for many decades. As I got to know Mrs. Z and learned about her compassion for ex-cons, we found the way to “connect the seemingly unconnected.” We suggested that we were actually focused on two ends of the same string: she was focused on helping those coming out of prison, and we were working to prevent people from going to prison in the first place. That concept resonated with her, and her gifts to WCA increased in both size and regularity after we shared that idea with her.

Major Donor Cultivation is Retail, not Wholesale

Our nonprofits benefit when we present our work to each major donor in the way that is most inspiring for him or her. Put your thinking cap on and customize your story! Determine what motivates each of your major donors to support your nonprofit’s work, and make sure that, when you talk with them, you’re telling the story from the perspective that means the most to them.

For me, the creativity required by major gift cultivation and solicitation is one of the reasons I enjoy fundraising so much. Exploring a story from different points of view is intriguing, and it’s gratifying when a donor’s eyes are opened to the potential impact in front of them. Creative story-telling is often the only way for that to happen.

Betsy Steward 9/27/22 Betsy Steward 9/27/22

Video: How to Write Proposal Letters to Major Donors

Why would you write a letter to a donor? What should your letter contain? Can you really solicit a gift via a letter? Watch this short video and learn the ins and outs of proposal letter writing.

Betsy Steward 7/12/22 Betsy Steward 7/12/22

Do You Take Criticism Well? Tips to Help the Medicine Go Down

by Betsy Steward

Taking criticism is a skill that’s required in just about every endeavor. In the nonprofit world, when I was a Director of Development, I fielded criticisms from the Executive Director, Board members, and donors, because, in the interest of helping their nonprofit thrive, they’re all allowed and encouraged to say what’s on their mind. Hearing criticism is just part of the job in fundraising.

As a fundraising consultant, it’s my job to offer ideas, enthusiasm… and sometimes criticism. I’ve noticed that not all of my clients take criticism very well. How about you?

Hearing and accepting criticism is an important life skill. It’s how we learn at the deepest levels, beyond reading books, attending lectures, or working at exercises to improve, because it’s so deeply personal and focused. If you can honestly hear and consider criticism, it will help you immeasurably to grow in whatever endeavor you pursue.

Easier said than done, for sure. I hope my blog can help you think constructively instead of defensively when criticism inevitably comes your way.

Regular readers of my blog may remember that my first career was as an opera singer. I learned a lot in that career that has helped me succeed in fundraising. I’ve written blogs about skills I’ve transferred from opera to fundraising, like handling rejection (a significant aspect of fundraising that no one likes to talk about) and preparing for a solicitation meeting (which, like singing, is a performance).

In today’s blog, I focus on lessons I learned in singing about handling criticism. Singers regularly meet with teachers, coaches, conductors, and pianists, whose job is to evaluate and criticize, with the goal of improving the singer’s performance. That’s a lot of criticism! And if you’re really successful, you even get criticized in PRINT! Reviews can be wonderful… or devastating. Either way, a singer must learn to take it in stride, and consider any nuggets of truth a negative review may reveal.

The First Step

The goal of criticism should be to improve something. Before you listen to any evaluation, ask yourself if you think the person offering it is honestly trying to help you improve, or if they have some other agenda. Even if you believe a critique springs from less-than-noble motivation, it may still benefit you to consider it, keeping in mind that it could be tainted. But if, like my teachers, coaches, conductors, and pianists, the person offering criticism is hoping to help you upgrade something you’re doing, then park your ego on the shelf and LISTEN.

Socrates’ Triple Filters Test Adjusted for Taking Criticism

Once you’ve opened yourself to listen, I suggest using an adjusted version of Socrates’ Triple Filters Test. There’s a story about Socrates in which one of his disciples comes to him with a story. Before he will listen to the story, Socrates tells the man that his story must pass the Triple Filter Test:

is it true?
is it good?
is it useful?

Although the purpose of Socrates’ story is to teach us not to pay attention to rumors and gossip, his filters can be helpfully adapted to handle criticism. For instance:

1. Filter of Truth: is it true?

Quiet your ego, listen to the criticism, and ask yourself honestly: is it true? It could be, and if it is, be willing to face it. The world won’t end if it turns out that you’re not actually perfect!

Or it might not be true. I remember getting a letter with feedback from an important conductor after I had auditioned for him. I shared it with my teacher, and we agreed that his observations didn’t ring true for either of us. It didn’t mean that the conductor was wrong… but his opinion wasn’t just automatically right, either. It didn’t line up with my teacher’s or my analysis of my singing, so we decided not to follow the direction he suggested.

Ask yourself when you are criticized: is that criticism valid? If you conclude that it is, then consider how you can change. If not, let it go.

2. Filter of Utility: is it useful?

Don’t confuse feedback with criticism, and don’t try to address problems that you can’t change. Feedback isn’t always useful. In the movie Tootsie, there’s an audition scene for Dustin Hoffman’s character Michael. After he reads his lines, the feedback he’s given is that they were looking for someone shorter. (His desperate plea — “I can be shorter!” — made me laugh.) But that’s feedback, not criticism, which may help you understand something, but may not offer any insight that can help you improve. (Michael learned why he wasn’t cast in the role, but didn’t glean any action steps or ideas that could improve his acting.)

Before you dismiss it, though, make sure you’ve pushed yourself to do the very best you can. You must ask yourself if the feedback could be something you could change. In opera, before technology made opera on film available, overweight singers were considered acceptable. Despite the stereotype, that is not true anymore — if a singer is too heavy for a role, she won’t be hired. So, if the feedback at a singer’s audition is, “you’re too heavy to be believable in this role”, a singer who’s really determined to succeed in opera could work to get in better shape.

Ask yourself when you are given feedback: is it something I can change? If it is, change it! If not, let it go.

3. Filter of My Reaction: am I being defensive?

Sometimes it’s hard to hear that something you did or produced wasn’t as perfect as you thought it was. I remember singing in an opera that was reviewed in a prominent publication. The reviewer noted that my character “seemed to have had too much coffee.” Nothing about my voice, my presence, or my musicianship, just — “she had too much coffee.” Ouch.

It was no fun to read that review… but it helped me to realize that my excitement at singing that role was working against me. After I admitted (to myself!) that he had a point, I was able to calm down and improve my remaining performances in that production because he pointed out something that wasn’t obvious to me, and that my fellow performers (including the conductor and director) hadn’t noticed. Of course, that reviewer never came back, so he never saw that I learned from his review – but I did! And only because I was able to put aside my impulse to defend and protect myself, and open myself up to his legitimate critique.

Ask yourself when someone offers their opinion: can I see it from their perspective? Looking at it that way might help you stop your natural inclination to defend and protect yourself.

The ability to welcome valid criticism is an invaluable skill, and the more you can do that, the farther you’ll go towards your goals, whatever they may be. In my experience, both as a singer and a fundraiser, once my I got my ego out of the way, I was grateful for the criticisms I received because they ultimately helped me improve.

Does this mean I always take criticism well? No, I’m sorry to say, it does not.

But it helps. And I hope it will help you, too.

Interested in talking with Betsy about fundraising? Subscribe to her blog and schedule a free 45-minute session! You can join her blog mailing list by scrolling to the bottom of the page at https://www.betsystewardconsulting.com/

Betsy Steward 6/21/22 Betsy Steward 6/21/22

Major Gift Fundraising! Who Reports to Whom?

By Betsy Steward

As a fundraising consultant, I’m intrigued by the relationships I’ve seen between nonprofit Executive Directors (EDs, aka CEOs) and Development Directors (DDs). Who’s the boss in major gift fundraising?

In my years as a Development Director, I was fortunate to have an ED who understood the tricky leadership balancing act between ED and DD. Of course, on the org chart, there was no question who was in charge: SHE was! She was my boss, I reported to her, and I had tremendous respect for her leadership. Although we collaborated on the overall fundraising strategy at our nonprofit, she made all final decisions about fundraising and everything else. She was in charge of making sure all work supporting our nonprofit’s mission got done.

But there was one exception: major gift fundraising.

We were a successful fundraising team largely because she understood that, for major gift fundraising, I was in charge. I was the one “driving the fundraising bus” — the one who was focused solely on the big fundraising picture and the small details essential to successfully moving a donor along the continuum of giving. If I said to call a donor, my boss knew it was in the organization’s best interest for her to drop everything and make that call.

I remember one perfect example of this tricky relationship. We were approaching the end of our 4-year Capital Campaign, when one of our lead donors called me to check on our progress. We were about $250,000 shy of our $6.5MM goal at that point, with the campaign end date looming and inflexible. Our generous and compassionate lead donor made a wonderful offer: She would give an additional $50,000 if (and ONLY if) we could find four additional donors who would also give $50,000. If we were successful, their total, $250,000, would put us at (or potentially even over) our goal.

Of course, over the four years of the campaign, we had already approached all the donors we could find, and many had been very generous. There were a handful, though, who we suspected had the capacity for an additional $50,000 gift, and who might be excited at the prospect of a match. One was an elderly woman (in her mid-90s) who was a great admirer of my boss, and who had been committed to our mission and vision for a long time.

Although it was often my job to call our major donors, my boss and I agreed that it would be more effective in this case if she were to speak with our senior donor. After we prepared talking points and practiced for the call, my boss picked up the phone. “H e l l o ???” answered a very weak and trembling voice. My boss identified herself, and was abruptly instructed to call back in an hour.

55 minutes later, I headed from my office to my boss’s. As I approached her door, it opened, and my ED, wearing her winter jacket with her purse over her shoulder and boots on, came toward me down the hallway, heading for the exit. Looking surprised (and undoubtedly annoyed), I said, “Where are you going?” Her response: “OMG, I’m STARVING. If I don’t get something to eat, I’m going to fall over.”

I held up my hand in a STOP gesture, and, in a voice she didn’t dare argue with, said, “When a 95-year-old woman tells you to call back in an hour, you have to call her back in an hour. Turn around and go back to your office.” She didn’t actually say “Yes, ma’am,” but almost! She turned around, made the call, and got the gift… and we eventually exceeded our campaign goal. (My boss also got lunch about a half hour later.)

As it turns out, our donor was midway through a massage when my boss first called, which made her sound deceptively frail, so calling her back in an hour might not have been quite as urgent as it seemed.

But if my boss hadn’t respected the donor’s wishes enough to do as she was asked — to call back in an hour — would we have gotten the gift? Honestly, we can’t be sure either way… but was it worth taking a chance by NOT calling as requested? That donor hadn’t agreed to an additional gift yet — she hadn’t even been asked — but she had implicitly agreed to a conversation, which is the first step in the solicitation process. Why take a chance that, by the time we called, she might have been unavailable, or she might have forgotten that she had invited my boss to call her?

It’s the job of the Development Director to keep all fundraising strategies at the forefront of her thinking so that nothing falls through the cracks. Unlike the ED, who must oversee the entire operation, the DD ‘s single priority is fundraising… which is why it’s important for the ED/CEO to understand the “balance of power” in nonprofit major gift fundraising.

Although the org chart may correctly identify the ED as the nonprofit’s top dog, a smart ED knows to take her major gift fundraising marching orders from her DD.

Betsy Steward 6/7/22 Betsy Steward 6/7/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Are You Getting the Most out of Your Consultant?

by Betsy Steward

Do you read Vu Le’s blog? Vu (“voo lay”) is a thought leader in the nonprofit sector, and I’m always interested to hear what he has to say. I don’t always agree with him, but he always gets me thinking. Yesterday, he offered a unique perspective on fundraising consultants, and it prompted me — a fundraising consultant — to offer some additional observations on the relationship between consultant and client.

I’ve noticed that some of my clients get more out of me than others. How about you? If you’ve hired a consultant to help you fundraise, have you done all you could to make sure you got what you paid for?

You can maximize your investment by taking full advantage of all that a consultant offers. Here’s what you’ve hired, and some suggestions for tapping into all that you, as a client, are entitled to:

Experience and expertise. If you’ve hired a good consultant, she comes with a deep and informed perspective on fundraising. Listen to what she says and follow her suggestions (unless you have a legitimate objection). You’re not obligated to follow all the advice your consultant provides — in the final analysis, all decisions are yours, not your consultant’s, and she could be wrong, as Vu points out! However, you’re wasting your nonprofit’s money if you don’t consider her suggestions and ask her to help you understand her reasons and opinions so you can come to an informed decision.

But your consultant can’t help if she doesn’t know what’s going on.

I’ve had clients neglect to inform me about some incident with a donor, and then take an action before discussing it with me — with results that weren’t optimal. I wonder sometimes if clients think they’re bothering me by asking me for my opinion too often. PLEASE! Bother me! Ask me questions and keep me informed! It’s really my job to offer unlimited advice on fundraising, so it’s doubtful that you can ask me too often or for too much.

I encourage you to think of your consultant as your partner — your fellow team member who’s working towards the same goal, and needs to be in on all opportunities/crises. If something happens, I want to know about it.

Tangible, specific help. If you’re like most fundraising professionals, you wear many hats and juggle an oversized task list. Sometimes you just need someone to take a chore or two off your plate. Depending on her skillset, a consultant can provide an invaluable extra hand.

But your consultant can’t help you get things done if you don’t tell her what would help.

PLEASE! Ask me to help you compose an email to a major donor, proofread your end-of-year letter, put together some ideas for your board presentation and more. If it’s too much, or there’s a better solution, or it’s inappropriate for your consultant to do, or it’s beyond the scope of my capabilities, I’ll say so — but I’ll help if I can.

Kindness, compassion, and enthusiasm when you need it most. Fundraising is hard work that takes courage, excitement, and stamina. When things don’t go as expected or hoped for, it can sap your energy and enthusiasm. Sometimes going to your ED or your work colleagues to unload is not the right move. So… who understands better than your consultant, who has seen and experienced the ups and downs of asking for gifts, and who will keep your frustration and discouragement confidential?

But your consultant can’t help you feel better if you don’t confide in her.

PLEASE! Bother me with your feelings about fundraising, no matter what they are! I’m not encouraging you to develop a habit of complaining, but sometimes venting is cathartic and healing. Share your feelings with your consultant: it will go no further, and she can help with a perspective that can get you through the day.

We are living in changing times. As Vu points out, we’re all working to shift the culture to be more equitable and inclusive. No one — not Vu, not consultants, not development professionals — has all the right answers. But It’s safe to say that most fundraising consultants are empathic, compassionate people who want to help others, and want our clients to succeed and grow — and our world to improve.

Even if your contract with your consultant doesn’t specifically spell out the things I’ve mentioned, they are part of what you’re paying for. Maximize your investment — don’t neglect to use them!

Betsy Steward 5/10/22 Betsy Steward 5/10/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Are Your Emails Annoying Your Donors?

by Betsy Steward

So, we’re back in Nonprofit Fundraising Event Season! Is your inbox like mine: overflowing with invitations?

Here’s something that’s been bothering me: why do I get repeated invitations to events I’ve already registered for?

And here’s another one: why am I getting a “thank you for supporting our event” when I DIDN’T support the event?

Why? Because the nonprofits that send these emails don’t bother to segment their list. They just send the same email to all their past and current donors – defeating the underlying purpose of every single donor communication, which is to build trust.

These kinds of messages are annoying, but more importantly, they erode trust by wasting your donors’ time. Worse than that — they send subliminal messages like these:

that your organization is disorganized;
that you have no idea whether or not the donor is attending or attended your event (and you don’t really care);
that your development team sees donors as ATMs, that can constantly provide funds; and/or
that your nonprofit doesn’t look out for their donors’ best interest.

Look out for their donors’ best interest? Is that something the development team is supposed to do? Well... YES. It’s part of building trust. It’s important.

If your donor knows you won’t waste their time with something they don’t need, they’ll be much more likely to open anything you send — because they trust you.

I remember a conversation I had with one of the lead campaign donors at an organization where I was Director of Development. She had given millions of dollars to our organization, she believed passionately in our work, and she was interested to hear about any and all of our fundraising efforts. One day, I was telling her about the response to our end-of-year appeal, and it struck me that, as a major donor to our nonprofit, she hadn’t received it, so she might not understand the references I was making. I stopped mid-sentence and said, “oh, it just occurs to me that of course you haven’t read our end-of-year appeal letter — we took you off that list.”

I wish you could have heard the quiet way she said, “thank you for that.” She just sounded so deeply grateful. I’m sure that, as a well-known philanthropist, she got letters and emails all the time from hopeful fundraisers. By taking her off that list, we were looking out for her – not needlessly pestering her with annoying solicitation letters when we had already had many conversations with her about her giving, or sending her invitations to register for events she was not only registered to attend but was sponsoring.

I believe that’s one reason why she always took my calls and answered my emails.

Folks, we’re well into the 21st century. I’m confident that whatever donor database you’re using can slice and dice your donor list so that ONLY those who haven’t yet registered for your event get another invitation, and ONLY those who gave to your event get thanked for supporting it.

Please take the time to segment your list, so you don’t erode the trust you’ve already built with your donors. Your donors will be more likely to open your emails and take your calls if you do!

Betsy Steward 4/26/22 Betsy Steward 4/26/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Should You Ask Your Volunteers to Donate?

By Betsy Steward

Does your nonprofit depend on volunteers to execute your mission? Do you ask them to donate financially?

Some people in the nonprofit world believe that it’s wrong to ask someone who’s already donating their time and talent to contribute their treasure as well. What do YOU think?

I believe you’re missing an opportunity if you don’t ask your volunteers to donate. My opinion is based not only on my experience as a fundraising professional, but — maybe more importantly — on my experience as a volunteer at a nonprofit. I hope my story will give you something to think about.

Years ago, I volunteered weekly at an organization dedicated to helping inner-city, underprivileged teens excel in school. I served as a writing coach, and I enjoyed working directly with young people very much. After a lengthy stint volunteering, I noticed that I hadn’t received the organization’s end-of-year appeal in my inbox or mailbox.

Thinking it was a mistake, I alerted the Executive Director that I hadn’t receive the appeal. She informed me that it was the nonprofit’s policy NOT to ask their volunteers for financial contributions. She felt volunteers had already given enough and that it was “inappropriate” to ask them for more, so I wouldn’t be added to their mailing list. She made it clear that she did not want a donation from me.

I was shocked. I’m STILL shocked.

As a volunteer, I knew better than most donors just how much good was achieved at that place. And, like most Americans, I donate to causes and nonprofits I believe are making a significant improvement in our world.

Why wouldn’t you ask a volunteer — someone who has clearly shown strong commitment to your mission and vision, who deeply understands your work and the need for it, and who has seen your impact up close — to support your work with a financial contribution?

I still don’t understand their policy. Although I made several attempts to convince the ED that her policy was short-sighted and misguided, I was unsuccessful. I finally decided to take my bat and go home. Although I still believe very strongly in their mission of high-quality education for all, I neither volunteer there nor support that organization in any way at this point.

Why did I stop supporting that nonprofit? Because their policy convinced me that it was not well-run.

After proving my dedication to their mission by extensive volunteering, I offered my donation and they declined, for the simple reason that I was already donating my time and talent. That’s a dreadful policy.

PLEASE don’t make this mistake. An important task of any nonprofit professional — whether they are officially on the fundraising team or not — is to explore any legitimate opportunities for support that come up. Obviously, if there’s any question of ethics or integrity involved with the donation, then the organization must decline it. But there was no reason in this case, and every reason to grow the relationship with me by accepting.

Nonprofit professionals build trust with their donors by leaving no stone unturned to get funding. By declining my offer, the ED showed me a lack of professionalism — or worse — a lack of passion for her mission. If she doesn’t understand how fundraising works, why is she leading the organization? And if she doesn’t believe in the nonprofit enough to accept any legitimate donation, why should I? With that attitude at the helm, how could this organization ever reach its potential?

Like any donor, I want to support an organization that is primed for success.

The hardest part of fundraising is identifying the people for whom your mission resonates. If you find someone whose belief in your nonprofit’s vision is highly evident because of their volunteer work, you just must ask for their financial support — unless, of course, there is some extenuating circumstance, e.g., they’re dealing with a major medical challenge, they’ve just lost their job, or any other challenge you’re aware of that’s out of the ordinary.

I believe the worst thing a fundraiser can hear is not “No” — but rather, “Why didn’t you ask ME?” Don’t leave your volunteers out! They clearly want to be part of your nonprofit family. Of course, your solicitation should acknowledge all the non-financial ways they already contribute: that’s called cultivation.

Your volunteers can always say no, but they should be asked. It’s disrespectful to them and to the people you serve not to.

Betsy Steward 4/12/22 Betsy Steward 4/12/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Get Small Shops Started on Planned Giving

By Betsy Steward

In a recent blog, I wrote about the importance of legacy giving right now, because the greatest transfer of wealth in history is happening as the Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers make their estate plans. I believe it’s a mistake to miss this unique opportunity to secure your nonprofit’s future.

If you’re part of a big nonprofit like a university or a hospital, you probably already have planned giving experts on staff, with a robust and active Planned Giving program in place. This blog is not for you.

But if you’re part of a smaller nonprofit, with a small development team, asking your donors to include your nonprofit in their estate plans might have been pushed off your task list (if it ever got there to begin with).

I urge you to get started! If you don’t start one, who will? And if not now, when? You don’t have to hire a planned giving expert — and your nonprofit doesn’t have to be as big as a university or a hospital — to start asking your committed donors to include your charity in their plans. If you can have a conversation with your donors about their giving, is there any reason not to include a mention of the ultimate gift – a legacy gift?

Three elements need to be ready to start talking about estate planning: your organization, your donor, and you. Here’s a checklist as you consider what’s needed to move forward. You’ll see that it’s not prohibitive… you can do this!

Is YOUR ORGANIZATION ready for a planned giving program?

Discussing planned giving is most appropriate for organizations that have been around for at least ten years. Your nonprofit:

must have official nonprofit IRS status — for most, that means it must be a 501(c)3;
must be established in the community with a track record of success;
needs leadership that’s well respected;
needs to be perceived as stable;
(so, if your ED just left and you’re looking for a new one, it might be wise to wait until the next ED is in place – that makes a more compelling story when you talk about estate planning)
must have a Gift Acceptance Policy in place.
What if the donor leaves you something that is counter to your org’s values? Or something that you can’t use and will cost your org money to discard? Gift Acceptance Policies are mandatory, not just for planned gifts. If your Board doesn’t have one, start educating them about why it’s important, and help them get started on one.

Is YOUR DONOR ready to be asked for an estate gift?

It’s the strength of the relationship that determines the timing of an estate “ask,” not the age or perceived wealth of the donor. A longtime donor who is clearly committed to your mission and organization won’t be surprised if you bring up the subject, even if they’re middle-aged. In fact, another nonprofit probably already has!

In most cases, the most relevant question is “how many gifts has this person given to you” rather than “how much has this person given to you.” It’s the frequency of gifts that shows someone is a good candidate for this conversation.

Let’s say you have two donors. One sponsored your gala by giving you a $25,000 sponsorship in response to your solicitation, which was a good investment for him business-wise. The other donor has given $100 every year for 20 years.

It’s the annual $100 donor who is the better candidate for a legacy conversation. That person is obviously very committed to your organization. I doubt you’ll surprise her by bringing it up, but I bet you’ll shock the other guy!

Are YOU ready to talk about planned giving?

Your job is to ask. It’s easy to be intimidated by the topic of estate planning, but remember that your ONLY job as a fundraiser is to ask. You are not — and you don’t have to be — a retirement planner, a financial planner, a tax preparer, or an attorney. You are not required to know all that those people know, just to bring up the topic. You just need to know how to ask for a donation.

Your confidence would benefit, though, if you were familiar with these five basic versions of a bequest:

General Bequest: a specific dollar amount or asset
Percentage Bequest: a percentage of the total estate
Residuary Bequest: a percentage, or the entirety, of the estate after all other debts, expenses, and bequests are accounted for
Contingent Bequest: result of a certain condition being met (e.g., if a spouse pre-deceases the donor)
Beneficiary Designation: donors name your nonprofit as a beneficiary of a portion (or all) of their retirement funds, bank accounts, and life insurance policies

Reviewing this list before any meeting where you plan to discuss Planned Giving will help you appear poised and informed. Once you and the donor have discussed it, you can pass the detailed planning off to an expert.

There’s no reason not to ask your committed donors — the same way you ask them for anything else — to include your nonprofit in their estate plans. It’s how you can secure your nonprofit’s future, and how your committed donors’ values can live on in perpetuity. Don’t wait!

Betsy Steward 3/29/22 Betsy Steward 3/29/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Tips for Maximizing Donor Engagement in Phone Calls

By Betsy Steward

My last two blogs (The “Best” Way to Raise Donation Dollars and Tips on Making Time for Donor Outreach) have stressed the importance of reaching out personally and regularly to your donors. So much communication is accomplished these days through email and texting, but at some point — if all goes well — you’ll find yourself talking with the donor on the phone. That’s what leads to an in-person meeting, which is when the magic starts happening!

But only if you’re prepared for a successful phone call.

In my years as a Development Director, what worked for me was treating a donor phone call — even if it was just to make a meeting date — like a performance: I made sure my professionalism, my enthusiasm for the mission, and my respect for the donor were at the forefront of my thinking. I’ve learned that whatever mood I bring to the conversation will be contagious — so, as a fundraising consultant, I advise all my clients to take the time to get their heart and mind in the right place before they pick up the phone, even if they anticipate a brief call.

It boils down to making your donors WANT to spend some time with you.

Here are some tips:

Don’t make calls when you’re

1) grumpy for any reason
2) rushed for any reason
3) tired and/or hungry
4) feeling stressed out or unfocused

Be prepared for a long call, even if your only reason for calling is to ask for a meeting. You just don’t know what’s going on in the donor’s life. If they want to talk, be available to listen and share!
Be prepared for a short call, too! Have your talking points ready to go, so that if the donor is short on time, you can gracefully cut to the chase without stuttering or stumbling.
Spend a few minutes reminding yourself why — out of the 1.5M charities in the US — you’ve chosen to work at this nonprofit. It’s important that the donor knows it’s more than just a paycheck for you. Having your dedication to the mission at the front of your mind will help you to naturally share your personal commitment.
Spend another few minutes right before you make the call imagining how many lives will be changed by your nonprofit’s actions. If you’re in a capital campaign, imagine the building completed with people inside, actively participating in programs that will change their lives.
Remember that the donor has already shown they believe in your mission by donating, so you can assume he/she WANTS to talk with you. Don’t let your subtext be apologetic; think of yourself as your donor’s teammate. You are not “bothering” the donor; you’re working together on your shared goal.
Since you know they already believe in your work, be ready to find a way around any excuse. Instead of hearing “no” as the end of the conversation, keep coming up with alternatives to anything the donor mentions that could get in the way of a meeting. For example:
- if they’re headed out the door on vacation, ask if you can call again in a month;
- If they say they don’t want you to waste your time, tell them that a favorite part of your job is to make sure donors understand the powerful impact their gifts are having and the lives they’re changing;
- If they say, “aren’t you just going to ask me for money?”, you can respond: “of course, I can’t deny that we’d love a donation, but it’s entirely up to you if, when and how you want to support us. I wouldn’t expect anyone to fund something they don’t know much about. My job is to make sure you’re informed about the difference we’re making. You’ve supported our work in the past, so my purpose in meeting would be to share what we’re doing right now.”

Maximizing your chances for success in a phone conversation with a donor will maximize your chances of securing the most generous gifts your donors can offer. Preparing yourself before you pick up your phone only takes a few minutes, but it can make all the difference when you’re talking with your donors.

Betsy Steward 3/15/22 Betsy Steward 3/15/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers: Tips on Making Time for Donor Outreach

by Betsy Steward

In my last blog, I wrote about the importance of reaching out to current donors in your database who have been giving regularly for a long time. They have great potential as estate donors, and many of them could grow into major donors if they were cultivated properly. I recommended running a report to find donors who have given the most often and/or over the longest period of time, and then to start reaching out to them regularly.

Sounds simple, right?

Yeah, right. I’m a fundraising consultant now, but I’ve been a Director of Development, so I know how jam-packed the development staff task list is. I thought some pragmatic tips on finding time in your schedule for personal outreach to donors would be a helpful follow-up to my recommendation.

Make Your Fundraising Calendar Pragmatic

Organize it by income stream. Mark the first column heading — before the month or week headings — in your spreadsheet as “INCOME” and include all of the ways your nonprofit raises funds.
Re-order the income stream list so that those most likely to fall off your radar are at the top, like this:

List Major and Estate Gifts first. Grants, events and appeals all have deadlines, which helps keep them top of mind. The only two income streams with no deadlines — the ones with the largest income potential — are Major Gifts and Estate Gifts. Their lack of deadlines makes it easy for them to fall to the bottom (or even OFF) of your to-do list. So I suggest putting them at the top of your list.
Donor Outreach is a better name for “Major Gifts”. Some the current donors you reach out to will become major donors, but not all, and it’s hard to predict who will. So why not rename “Major Gifts” as “Donor Outreach” on your list? Regardless of the size of the potential gift, it’s important to have Donor Outreach built into your calendar as a regular weekly task.
Plan on a handful of estate gift conversations every year. Conversations about estate planning may only happen a few times a year with a handful of donors, but it’s easy to forget to bring the subject up. Even if you’ll only be discussing it once a quarter, put it on the calendar so it doesn’t get lost. The biggest transfer of wealth in history is happening right now, as baby boomers make their estate plans, so don’t put this off!

Add development tasks to the calendar. Just because your event is in May, doesn’t mean May is the only month when you’ll be focused on the event! Including a brief reminder of your tasks right on the calendar will help keep you on track and prevent you — maybe not completely, but somewhat — from taking on more than you can reasonably do.

For instance, if your end-of-year appeal letter needs to hit mailboxes in mid-to-late November, there are some time-sensitive tasks in the months before November. It will help you stay on track if you list the tasks involved in the appropriate months directly onto your calendar, like this:
- August: start writing the end-of-year appeal letter;
- September: get your draft approved (which often takes longer than you think it will – the board chair and ED might not get right back to you, and often ask for changes);
- October: work with your graphic designer on it;
- Late Oct/early Nov: send it to the printer;
- Dec/Jan: if your letter is well-received, you’ll need to spend a lot of time in December and January writing thank-you notes.

Having these tasks on the calendar will remind you to be careful scheduling other big projects during those months. Check out this Sample Development Calendar with Abbreviated Tasks:

Make Your Full Task List Pragmatic List, too, by applying the same approach.

I use a Word Table for my task list (Excel also works), and, as with my calendar, I organize the tasks by income stream, too. I have a table heading for each income stream, and I keep that document open on my desk all day, every day, so I can update it and keep my tasks front and center. It helps me guard against any one income stream (especially the ones with no deadlines, like Major and Legacy Gifts) completely slipping my mind.

Pragmatic Planning supports Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning is vital to fundraising, but I believe spending some time thinking about Pragmatic Planning — how you get the job done! — will help you execute that Strategic Plan more effectively. Organization is such a critically important component in fundraising, and I hope these tips can help your fundraising efforts thrive.

Betsy Steward 3/1/22 Betsy Steward 3/1/22

Nonprofit Fundraising: The “Best” Way to Raise Donation Dollars

By Betsy Steward

How do you define the “best way” to raise nonprofit dollars?

For me, the “best way” means “the most cost-effective way” — the one with the lowest expenses that brings in the most money. Those would be major and estate gifts, and grants. I’ll leave the subject of grants to someone else since that’s not my specialty. My focus today is on major and estate gifts.

They are closer than you might think.

Some people think that the only way to achieve major gifts is by approaching philanthropists known for their generosity. I agree that if you happen to know Oprah or Bill Gates or MacKenzie Scott personally, then you should talk with them. But most of us don’t know them — or anyone else with their level capacity for giving.

While I don’t deny the value of researching recognized philanthropists to find connections to you or someone in your organization, I strongly believe that personal outreach to your current donors — donors who have already proven their dedication to your mission and work through repeated and reliable donations — is at least as important. Neglecting and underestimating them is a mistake that’s all too often made.

Look at your existing database. Are there people who have been supporting your organization regularly for years or even decades? THEY are the ones who could potentially be inspired to give a major or estate gift. And it’s much more likely that they will take your calls or answer your emails than Oprah, Bill or MacKenzie. Have you reached out to them lately?

Cultivation starts long before you can ask for a 5-, 6- or 7-figure gift. Just because someone makes an annual 3- 4-figure gift doesn’t mean they can’t give more, and that you can’t build the relationship to grow that gift. It’s the frequency rather than the size of gifts that’s the most significant indicator of commitment to your mission.

Here’s an idea: run a report listing your donors by donation date, and then sort it to find:

donors who have given the most often
donors who have given over the longest period of time

Those people should be part of your inner circle! There’s a lot you can do to make sure they feel like part of your inner circle. Can you get in the habit of reaching out to them regularly? Perhaps quarterly? You could:

thank them for their gifts and let them know what a difference their regular gifts make
find out what motivates/inspires them to support your org and how they first got connected
keep them updated on activities at your organization
ask for small increases, for example: if their annual gift is $250, could they raise it to $300, $500 or even $1K? If they regularly attend your events, could they invite someone next time as their guest?
ask if they could introduce you to people in their circle of friends who might share their passion
ask if they might consider including your nonprofit in their estate plans, since it’s obviously important to them

Personal outreach to donors who have proven they already believe in what you do is the most reliable way to reach major and estate gifts — what I call the “best” way to raise funds because it’s the least cost for the most return. But it only works if “personal outreach to donors” is a standard item on your weekly to-do list, and a confirmed block of time on your weekly calendar. I realize that you — like all nonprofit professionals — have a lot to do, but I urge you not to neglect this very important part of your job. The return on investment is huge.

Betsy Steward 2/15/22 Betsy Steward 2/15/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Do you suffer from SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME?

By Betsy Steward

Have you heard of “Shiny Object Syndrome” in business? It’s a condition that inflicts millions of business owners each year. The author David Finkel defines it in the for-profit world this way:

“Instead of focusing on the big picture tasks that fuel growth for their business, they get side-tracked by a new business idea or project that feels new and exciting.”

(from The Freedom Formula:
How to Succeed in Business without Sacrificing Your Family, Health or Life)

As a fundraising consultant, I see it as a condition that inflicts millions of fundraisers, too, and I’ve adjusted the definition:

Instead of asking for gifts or building relationships, they get side-tracked by a new fundraising suggestion or new technology.

Building relationships that result in gifts is the primary job of fundraising, and it takes courage to do it. It’s easy and tempting to procrastinate! With so many development-related tasks to do, it’s easy to fill your day with busy-work that prevents you from reaching out to a donor.

Watch out! Don’t let yourself get side-tracked. To be specific, here are some Fundraising Shiny Object Syndrome Activities, and some thoughts about each:

Scheduling an additional event instead of reaching out to donors who came to the last one.
The fastest and easiest way to build relationships and move donors along the continuum of giving is to call the folks who’ve already demonstrated their belief in your mission by attending your event or making a donation (no matter what size). If you haven’t reached out to those who attended your last event, you haven’t completed the tasks for that event, right? So why plan another?
Saying YES to every new suggestion made by well-meaning board or fellow staff members.
Of course you should always listen to your board members and anyone else who makes helpful suggestions… but don’t forget to listen to YOURSELF! Ask yourself if it’s reasonable for you to take on the new project or idea. Sometimes they’re good suggestions, but… I’ve noticed that Board members never suggest that you discontinue something else so you can execute their new idea. They’re not thinking about your time management — because that’s not really their job. It’s your job, as the professional fundraiser, to decide on the best use of your time.
Looking for a new database without fully knowing the features of your current one.
Most of the databases currently available can do a LOT, so before you jump to finding and buying a new one, make sure you thoroughly understand the one you have. Deeply understanding its features can save you a lot of time and money. Investing time in learning your current database is important, and if you buy a new one, you’ll have to spend even more time learning THAT one, since you’ll have to start from scratch.
Investing time and money in new technology.
There will always be new tools out there, but do you already have something that could accomplish the same task? The latest, greatest technology can be really seductive …. but do you have time to learn it and still reach out to your donors? And what about the cost? Before you invest in a new program, make sure it’s the smartest use of your resources, including — and maybe especially — your time.

As a fundraiser, your priority just MUST be donor outreach and cultivation that leads to solicitation. Ask yourself if you’re falling for Shiny Objects, and don’t let these tempting distractions get in the way of the most important part of your job – reaching out to your donors and potential donors.

Betsy Steward 2/8/22 Betsy Steward 2/8/22

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Build a Culture of Philanthropy with Ted Lasso’s Help

By Betsy Steward

Have you watched Ted Lasso yet? I love that show! It’s about kindness and compassion. Oh yeah, soccer, too. But mostly it’s about kindness and compassion.

And it’s about changing the collective attitude at an organization —the culture — which is why I’m writing about it.

As a fundraising consultant, I’ve seen so many of my clients and colleagues struggle to get their boards and fellow staffers excited and enthusiastic about development. As if asking for money isn’t hard enough already! But it’s even harder when you’re surrounded by people who turn up their noses at fundraising — always leaving it off or putting it last on meeting agendas, or pretending that fundraising has nothing to do with them, and that they have nothing to do with raising money. I bet my readers know what I mean.

A culture of philanthropy — where everyone understands that fundraising is fundamental to the organization’s health and that everyone involved has a role to play in it — is critical to nonprofit success.

So how do you develop a culture of philanthropy? How do you convince others that raising money is deeply rewarding and even fun? I suggest you take a page from Ted’s book.

If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso yet, you don’t need to — but I recommend it, it’s hilarious, whether you’re a soccer fan or not. The premise is that Ted, a small-time American football coach who knows nothing about soccer, is hired by a British soccer team whose owner secretly wants to spite her ex-husband by making sure the team loses all its games. She believes that hiring an “unqualified loser” (as she sees Ted) will get her to her goal.

It’s hard to imagine a more dysfunctional, unpleasant, and uninspiring place to work. Negativity abounds. Unkindness is the norm. Nastiness thrives. But then Ted arrives on the scene. Despite major challenges in his personal life, he personifies optimism, thoughtfulness, and empathy. And guess what, his attitude changes everything!

What can we fundraisers learn from Ted?

Ted lets his unabashed enthusiasm show, and it’s contagious. Although he is surrounded by grumpy coworkers who see themselves as a bunch of losers on a losing team, Ted doesn’t buy that — he makes it obvious that he sees them all as winners. He hangs a big sign that says BELIEVE over the door to his office, right off the locker room. Eventually he convinces his colleagues to believe, too. The team starts winning, and everyone’s outlook improves.
An enthusiastic approach to fundraising is critical. Let your colleagues see that you believe fundraising is fun, that the mission you serve is vitally important and achievable, and that you’re confident donors will be inspired to support it. If your colleagues, board members, donors and potential donors see your enthusiasm, it will draw them in. (BTW if you DON’T believe those things, you should find a different job.)
Ted looks past everyone’s pessimism, problems, and personality quirks. He’s consistently kind to everyone, even when they’re remarkably rude and mean-spirited. It builds trust! Ted is so reliably patient and sympathetic that the others eventually come around to his way of thinking.
If your board members and coworkers hate fundraising, ask them what has made them they feel that way. You can build trust by listening, and conversation is a two-way street: sharing genuinely about why you do it and why you love it can change their minds.
Ted doesn’t let anything get him down, including other people’s outlooks. He stays cheerful no matter what, ignoring other people’s gloom and doom. It works, and it can work for you, too.
Cheerleading is an important part of your job. Of course, there are days when the pressure of raising money is overwhelming and discouraging. But the more days you focus on joy and gratitude instead of doubt and dismay, the easier it gets, and the more effective you’ll be at changing other people’s attitudes.
Ted’s subtext is “join me.” With every word and gesture, he overtly and/or subliminally invites his colleagues to “come along for the ride” – and what a ride it turns out to be!
“Join me” is a phrase often used in engaging donors — why not use it with your colleagues as well? It’s hard to resist! And it’s hard come up with a more important fundraising tool than that.
Just like enthusiasm, compassion is contagious. We see it spread from the very beginning in the opening credits, when Ted takes a seat in an empty soccer stadium full of worn-looking, frosty-blue, graffiti-ridden seats. Once he sits down, his seat and the seats around his turn into a widening circle of warm-red, graffiti-free, new-looking seats — a perfect metaphor of contagious compassion.
Your compassion for the people your mission serves as well as for your colleagues can be contagious, too. Let your board, your colleagues, your donors, and your potential donors see it — it’s powerful!

The attitude towards fundraising of everyone on your team — the culture of philanthropy — plays a key role in your nonprofit’s health and accomplishments. Of course, a positive attitude alone will not solve every problem or overcome every challenge. But without that collective positive attitude, success in fundraising — or any endeavor — is hard to come by.

Betsy Steward is an independent fundraising consultant. She advises clients on major donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com.

Betsy Steward 2/1/22 Betsy Steward 2/1/22

Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Legacy Program Now

By Betsy Steward

Does your nonprofit have an active Planned Giving Program? I won’t be surprised if your answer is no. Estate gifts are the last thing many of us in fundraising get to. But it’s important now, because the Greatest Generation is disappearing, and Baby Boomers (57-75 years old) are getting older, too.

These folks have worked hard for their entire lives, and they’ve saved hard, too. They’ll be leaving their estates to their heirs and to charity. Experts say that the greatest transfer of wealth in history — an estimated $68 Trillion — is underway.

Although most of that wealth will undoubtedly go to heirs, these two groups have also proven to be philanthropic, empathic, and altruistic. They care about the world, and about their fellow human beings. If even 10% of that wealth were to be donated to charity, our sector would get a whopping $6.8 Trillion.

If you haven’t discussed your nonprofit’s future with your longtime donors, you’re missing a huge opportunity. And if your nonprofit has been around for ten years or more, it’s time to have a formal Planned Giving Program.

Consider these reasons for starting a Planned Giving (a.k.a. Legacy) Program:

A person’s estate can only go to three places: family and friends, the government via taxes, or charity. Legacy gifts to charity are just like other gifts to charity: they are the result of cultivation and solicitation, and they require stewardship. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Another nonprofit may well have already talked with your donor about their estate plan… and yours can, too. But your donor probably won’t bring it up – that’s YOUR job! A legacy program gives you an easy way to start the conversation.
A planned giving program will grow your nonprofit’s endowment, ensuring its stability in the future. Your nonprofit doesn’t have an endowment yet? That’s okay… many endowments were started because a donor left instructions to invest their legacy gift and then support the mission using the income it generates. You can start one that way, too.
A legacy program provides a structured way to thank and celebrate estate donors for their support and compassion while they’re still with us.
If you’ve got donors who have been giving regularly to support your mission for years or even decades, they clearly care about the people you serve, the issues you address, and the impact you have. They want your work to continue even after they’re gone. Discussing it with them is just good stewardship.
And speaking of those regular donors… even if their annual donations don’t qualify as major gifts, your nonprofit depends on them, right? What will happen to your mission when those regular donations stop? Why not ask your dedicated donors to include your nonprofit in their estate plan, either as a percentage or a designated amount, so that the good work they’ve done by supporting your nonprofit during their lives can continue to make the world better for their descendants? Even 1% of an estate can amount to a significant gift.
What could your nonprofit do differently if you learned that a longtime donor was planning to leave an unrestricted gift of $5M to your nonprofit? A structured Planned Giving Program can inspire just such a gift, because it builds your donor’s trust and confidence in your organization by providing your donor with a space to talk about the future for the people you serve.
A Planned Giving Program doesn’t take as much time as you might think. It’s really a matter of identifying the donors in your database who have given so often that their commitment to your mission is unquestionable, and then talking with them about their estate plans. I hope you’re reaching out regularly to those folks anyway! You’ll need to do an annual cultivation event for them, but not on the scale of your annual fundraising event. The return on investment is definitely worth it, because...
An estate gift comes from the donor’s assets, not their annual income, so it’s often the largest gift a donor ever makes.

Your job as a fundraiser is to ask, and nothing more. You don’t have to be a retirement planner, a financial planner, a tax preparer, or a lawyer to talk with your donors about their estate plans in relation to your nonprofit. There is no need for you to do anything besides ask… but you must ask.

Remember: you are asking on behalf of the people you serve, who cannot ask for themselves. Please don’t let this unique opportunity to make a difference for them slip away.

Betsy Steward advises clients on major donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com. Sign up for her weekly blog at https://www.betsystewardconsulting.com/.

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Nonprofit Fundraisers! Do you suffer from SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME?

Nonprofit Fundraisers! Build a Culture of Philanthropy with Ted Lasso’s Help

Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Legacy Program Now

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